Computer Sign Software

[Roderick Treece]

I am looking into buying a computer sign making program to design and export to my plotter. I am curious what other people use. Right now I use Illustrator and I have to scale anything over 200 " x 200" in size which is a pain in the a__.

Some of the program are running anywhere from 900.00 to 5000.00 so I really don't know what to choose.

Some offer vectorizing options but do they really work that well ?

Thanks
Roderick

[Bryce Hutchinson]

I have used Flexisign since their early existence. I have a love hate relationship with the program. It seems they write the program for PCs and Macs come as an afterthought. I still get crashes, and had ok luck with tec support and very bad tec support, depending on who you are in communication with. I am now behind and still using v7 Pro. It does all I need it to do. I do most of my design work in it and flip from photo shop & illustrator for the needed results. It is not as powerful as either of those 2 programs, but you can do a heck of a lot in it. Truthfully, it is the only program I am totally familiar with, so am not really eager to start all over again with something else. Although, I have come very close to giving flexi the heave ho. There are different versions of flexi, basic to 4 coolr printing. You might want to take a seminar before making an expensive jump into new solfware. Bryce

[Kent Smith]

I still use Gerber, Omega 3+ and have since their inception. No crashes, fonts are clean and well kerned, font builder actually works, scanning is good with great on screen editing and digitizing tools and the latest import/export utilities. I run two plotters and my Edge printer with no conflicts. Everything on screen is scaled full size so you know what you get. Yes it is probably the most expensive but I have more than earned the cost back in ease of use and production capability. Tech support when needed is first rate even when the issue is my stupdity or not their software.

[Mark Summers]

I have been with Signlab since way early too (dongle #807)
You will with a Flexi, Signlab and I'm sure Gerber need a dongle
that attaches via usb or parallel port.
I've had great Success with Signlab. Very user friendly. I'm
thinking you are not a printer so you don't need to get the
print/cut version. Less money.
Flexi and Signlab cover a pretty big gammut. Try a demo download.
When you say Gerber you need to know that Gerber builds everything
around stuff they sell, the key word here is they are proprietary.
I find There are things I can do in Signlab much easier than Photoshop
or Illustrator. But wouldn't do without Photoshop or Illustrator.
I think either Flexi or Signlab offers deals to get you in. They,
like any software plan, do well on us with the updates down the
road.

Mark

[Danny Baronian]

What Rod didn't include is that he's on a mac, which obviously makes a lot of difference. This is not for a mac vs pc debate, just OS specific, they both have their strengths. He's currently using Illustrator for design.

I suggest since he's familiar with Illustrator to stick with it , with the addition of two plug in's.

One is MagiSign - http://www.magisign.com/ a plug in for Illustrator that allows plotting straight out of Illustrator rather than use of a bridge program. The other would be Hot Doors Cad Tools - https://www.hotdoor.com/cadtools a plug in for Illy that allows you set standard as well as custom scales, as Rod was trying to work on a project larger than illustrators 200" art board. Custom scales is only a small part of Hot Door, as the balance of the plug in allows illustrator to function as a full blown CAD program.

With the two plug in's in illustrator, I quit Flexi years ago. At the time, Flexi was the only program written specifically for the mac, not a ported version from pc. Now I just concentrate and work in one program, forgoing the constant upgrades required every time a new OS is introduced, and eliminating the steep upgrade prices of most dedicated sign programs.

As far as vectorizing none of them work well. Vectorizing in any program, including illustrator, will result in rounded over square and angled corners. Nothing beats the quality of working with beziers in hand / manual digitizing.

Danny

[Kent Smith]

I have a copy of SignLab on an older computer and find it useful for some things. I also had Flexi for a while as well as Vinyl Cad. I tried to not like Gerber by trying many others and came back to them. They also have opened their architecture so that they are compatable with most plotters, printers and routers on the market.

Having said that, for someone used to the Mac, the PC programs just work differently and most find it difficult at best to make the switch. I too have heard that the plug ins work reasonably well although you must be certain that there is transparent compatability with the plotter you choose. Or, choose a plotter that is compatable. Mac's don't crunch numbers the same way as a PC and therefore will not drive many of the plotters, printers and routers.

[Mike Jackson]

I upgraded my (Gerber) Omega software to 3.0 a while back and like it a lot for my day-to-day signmaking. That won't do you much good on a Mac. I like Illustrator for digitizing, but when I use Illustrator for my design work, I get frustrated quickly and get back to Omega for its ease of use. Photoshop is a top of the line program for bitmaps and photos.

M. Jackson